After spending six years building his dream lodge in Uganda, Steve Williams faced his biggest struggle yet when he and his wife, Asha, gave birth to their son, Sidney, who was born with severe epilepsy and developmental delay. After struggling to find appropriate care in Uganda - and realising that many other families were facing similar and even greater challenges - they felt compelled to act. In 2014, alongside Fiona Beckerlegge, a paediatric physiotherapist volunteering to help with Sidney, Kyaninga Child Development Centre (KCDC) was born.
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Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalised groups worldwide. In Uganda, 13% of all children - more than 2.5 million - are living with a disability. Widespread local beliefs that disabilities are an 'untreatable curse' mean that these children and their families are frequently ostracised from their communities, educational and healthcare institutions, and social and leisure activities. Unsurprisingly, this affects their overall health outcomes and development, as well as impeding the economic independence of their families.
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At KCDC, we provide specialised and affordable healthcare, education, and assistive technology to children with disabilities across Western Uganda. We also support their caregivers, family members, and local communities. KCDC is currently the only regional organisation taking a holistic, community-based approach to disability and has helped over 7,000 children with disabilities and their families over the past ten years. However, this figure is estimated to be less than 1% of all children with disabilities in the region.
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The Therapy and Rehabilitation Centre was KCDC's starting point, and it couldn’t have begun without the support of Accomplish Children’s Trust. In 2015, KCDC became aware of ACT's work in western Uganda when Fiona attended a church coffee morning where trustee Susan Baldock was speaking. This led to further conversations about KCDC's vision, and ACT agreed to support the employment of our first physiotherapist and occupational therapist, who pioneered the implementation of community rehabilitation in the district.
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It now provides more than 900 therapy sessions monthly, including physio, occupational and speech therapy, social work and nutrition management through 2 daily outpatient clinics and our community-based rehabilitation programme. This programme partners with local health centres - as well as making visits to individual families who are unable to reach us at these centres - in order to increase access for rural communities. Our multi-disciplinary rehabilitation team often sets up their community clinics under the trees, as space inside the health centres is extremely limited. We always take all our equipment with us as we only have a limited number of standing frames, walkers and seats to support our therapy programmes. We received a donation of used therapy equipment through PhysioNet in 2015, which we still use daily and can often be seen riding on the car's roof rack as we travel around the region.
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The community-based rehabilitation team also work with ACT to provide more than 600 children with medication and medical support for epilepsy, which is poorly understood and managed in rural communities. The team of medical doctors, nurses and social workers also provide health education and reduce the exclusion and stigma that these children and their families face.

KCDC also works to increase access to education for the 91% of children with disabilities in Uganda who are not enrolled in primary school. This is carried out through our Kyaninga Inclusive Education Hub, which equips local teachers with the knowledge and tools to deliver inclusive education and participatory learning for all. Meanwhile, Kyaninga Inclusive Model School helps to realise this vision by bringing together children with disabilities and typical learners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds to learn side-by-side.

Beyond our main programmes, we also offer community nutrition clinics to prevent and manage malnutrition, community epilepsy clinics, a Street Business School for female caregivers of children with disabilities, and a variety of community awareness and advocacy workshops.
In Uganda, only 0.5% of people who need a wheelchair have one, as they are extremely expensive to import and the demand for donated ones far outweighs the numbers available. They are also not suitable for the local terrain, break easily and are not fitted for the individual user. Kyaninga Mobility was established in 2020 to design and develop high-quality, low-cost, terrain-suitable wheelchairs and other mobility aid designs made from bamboo and other locally available resources. All wheelchairs are provided free of cost to children at KCDC, with third-party purchases enabling the workshop to become financially self-sustainable. The remaining proceeds will be reinvested back into KCDC. We currently have a 300-person priority waitlist for these devices and are producing 15 wheelchairs a month.

Accomplish are committing to continue further expand their support of the amazing work of KCDC by helping to fund Bamboo wheelchairs for 10 children every year.
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For further information about KCDC please visit the following page:Â KCDC
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